Raising Consciousness

In case you are wondering, Chinese New Year is once again almost upon us. This year will be the Year of the Dragon! Unlike in western mythology, Chinese dragons are considered very lucky. It's a symbol for power, excellence, heroism, perseverance, nobility and divinity. He is energetic, decisive, optimistic, and wise. It is a portent for dynamic energy. He can sometimes be portrayed with wings.

It turns out that there are all different kinds of dragons, and the one for this year in particular is a water dragon. It has been 60 years since the last such creature. Water ameliorates the fiery nature, allowing it to make very considered decisions, taking into account all sides or points of view, to see all the possibilities and potentialities.

There is a new theory out of MIT, based on 10 years' worth of research, called Theory U, by C. Otto Scharmer. The book is still on my "to read" list, but was recommended by a friend in the U.K., Tom Ravetz. There are three basic steps: opening the mind (accessing one's authentic Self and recognizing one's blind spots), opening the heart (jettisoning all your emotional baggage and ideas you are tied to) and opening the will (taking everything up to a higher level, or consciousness). In other words, "leading from the future as it emerges". It is reminiscent of Japanese "circle groups" that were popular in business a couple of decades ago, but with a creative or artistic twist. You don't know what is possible until you knock down the walls and open things up, kind of like the story of Joshua and the city of Jericho.

Now if you had used the term "raising consciousness" 200 years ago, people would have said you were daft. It was only in certain circles that this was acknowledged, primarily amongst the priesthood, in fact going back at least 2500 years, in other words it was more or less a secret. Only since perhaps the 1960's has this concept entered everyday language, and perhaps partly due to the pioneering work of Rudolf Steiner , 100 years ago.

Kundalini yoga in particular, embodied this idea, which arrived in the U.S. in 1969. I want to quote a wonderful definition: Practitioners call Kundalini yoga the yoga of awareness because it focuses primarily on practices that expand sensory awareness and intuition in order to raise individual consciousness and merge it with the Infinite consciousness of God. Its purpose is to cultivate the creative spiritual potential of a human to uphold values, speak truth, and focus on the compassion and consciousness needed to serve and heal others. In its highest form, it is practiced for the purpose of opening the heart center, serving others, attaining self-realization.

How did we jump from Chinese mythology to yoga? How did we get from something that goes back perhaps 4000 years to the present?

That, my friends, is the subject of my next blog, but I will give you a hint: the Dragon is the 5th sign of the Chinese Zodiac, and that is a very interesting number.

Stay tuned!

Sparky